Vehicle owners, and especially automobile, bicycle, recreational vehicle, all-terrain vehicle (ATV), jet ski vehicle, and motorcycle owners, often customize the appearance of components of their vehicles beyond the offerings provided by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Customizing the appearance of components of a vehicle, such as bicycle frames, motorcycle tanks or fenders, automobile panels, bumpers, rockers, etc., adds a degree of individuality to the vehicle that is valued by owners, especially when the vehicle model is broadly available to the public. These customizations can differentiate the vehicle in a racing competition, indicate membership in an organization, indicate an official status such as a police officer, or simply express the personality or style of the vehicle owner to others. Despite the large number and variety of customizations available in the marketplace, a few common customization characteristics are generally most valued by consumers. The value added to a customized vehicle often lies with the extent of customization, the quality of the modification, the tools and skill set required to perform the customization, and the cost to the owner. Moreover, other important customization characteristics considered by vehicle owners when attempting to customize their vehicles is the amount of downtime that the vehicle must experience to perform the customization and whether the customization is a permanent modification or a revisable modification of the vehicle. Owners value the time they have to use their vehicles, and so customizations that require excessive downtime of the vehicle, i.e., that require the vehicle to be unusable for their intended purpose for a long period of time during the customization process, are undesirable.
The most obvious and well-known manner of customizing the appearance of a vehicle or of a vehicle body component, such as the front and back fenders, side panels, hood, rear, etc. of an automobile, is to repaint the vehicle body components. In many cases, this type of customization requires the owner to disassemble the vehicle and apply a custom paint job to the body components. The custom paint job may include a new shade, color or pattern of paint and/or may include artist designs, such as depictions of animals, logos, stars, or other artistic renderings. In order to be of a high quality, custom paint jobs must typically be performed by a professional, which can be cost prohibitive for many vehicle owners. This type of customization also typically requires excessive downtime, because the vehicle needs to be disassembled, parts thereof must be sent to a professional to apply paint, and the vehicle must be reassembled. To return the vehicle to the original configuration, the owner would need to strip the paint from the repainted surfaces and have the original finish re-applied, which may or may not be possible, and which again may be cost prohibitive.
Various other manners of customizing a vehicle or a component of a vehicle have been developed in an attempt to reduce some of the problems associated with customized paint jobs. For example, a vehicle customization technique that has been developed uses preformed or premade shell covers made of plastic or fiberglass that may be applied over an original vehicle component and attached thereto with adhesive, for example. However, there are still numerous problems associated with these types of shell covers or bolt-on parts. These types of parts are typically made of plastic or fiberglass, which detracts from the look or function of the original vehicle component because in many cases these shells or other parts must be constructed to be of unacceptable thickness to be sturdy enough for mounting on the vehicle. In particular, shell covers made of plastic or fiberglass must be manufactured to be of a minimum thickness on the order of ¼ inches, which when applied over the original vehicle component, make the vehicle component look unacceptably larger than the original, thereby detracting from the original design of the vehicle. Other vehicle component covers cannot be formed to match the shape or curves of the original vehicle component on all sides thereof, again altering the look of the original design of the vehicle in an unacceptable manner.
One technique for customizing a vehicle, such as an automobile, that is becoming more common, is to replace vehicle body components, such as fenders, side panels, hoods, doors, etc., of the vehicle with carbon fiber components, or to make these vehicle components as carbon fiber components in the first place, with the carbon fiber components being made in the same shape as the original component or with a similar but different shape to add a distinctive look to the vehicle body component. In other cases, carbon fiber body components may be manufactured and added to a vehicle as an add-on part that is mounted over or onto another original body component of the vehicle. The use of carbon fiber as the underlying structural material of the body component typically results in a lighter weight body part or component, that is actually stronger than the material (e.g., metal, aluminum, fiberglass, etc.) commonly used to make vehicle body components. Moreover, carbon fiber body parts have a distinctive look, as they generally appear, from a distance, as a single color, but include a weave pattern of carbon fiber strips that is visible to a viewer at closer ranges. Advantageously, carbon fiber body components can also be painted and otherwise customized in typical manners. Because carbon fiber body parts are typically thinner and lighter in weight than similar body parts made of other common materials, carbon fiber body parts are used more and more commonly in high performance vehicles, such as in race cars, high end street cars, etc.
Unfortunately, manufacturing carbon fiber body components is not an easy or highly automated process, and so is typically used sparingly in standard, mass marketed vehicles. In particular, to produce a carbon fiber body panel, a set of carbon fiber sheets (made of a weave of carbon fiber strips) are laid down on or over a mold in the shape of the exterior of the body component being formed. Typically, four or more such carbon fiber sheets are used and, in high quality applications, the carbon fiber sheets are pre-impregnated with resin, typically at a 70/30 ratio of carbon fiber to resin. In fact, it has been found that the use of carbon fiber sheets pre-impregnated with resin at a 70/30 ratio results in the strongest carbon fiber component when the carbon fiber component is fully formed. While, in some cases, it is possible to lay down carbon fiber sheets that are not pre-impregnated with resin onto a mold, and then flow resin through the sheets after these sheets have been place onto the mold, it is very difficult to control the carbon fiber/resin ratio in these cases, typically resulting in carbon fiber body components with inferior strength properties.
It will be understood, however, that to produce a high quality carbon fiber component, the carbon fiber sheets need to be laid down as a sheet over the mold with no or only minimal creases, folds, etc. As such, the more curves that are in the mold, the smaller the radius of curvature of the curves in the mold, and the more complex curves that are in the mold make it harder and harder to lay down the carbon fiber sheets in a manner that does not result in folds, creases, etc. within the sheets. While the sheets can be stretched a bit in order to accommodate curves in the mold, in some cases, the sheets must be cut to be adjusted to the curves of the mold so as to prevent folds or creases in the sheets and to make the fiber weave of the sheets look continuous or nearly continuous over, in, or through the curves of the mold. This process requires a skilled manufacturer in cases in which the molds have complex or tight curves.
In any event, after the sheets are laid down onto the mold, and the resin is added (either through the pre-impregnation of the sheets or via flowing resin through the sheets after being laid down over the mold), the carbon fiber sheets and the mold are wrapped and sealed in plastic (such as in a sealed plastic bag). Thereafter air and other gases are removed from the bag by, for example, a vacuum evacuation process that removes all or most of the air and other gases from the inside of the sealed bag to thereby vacuum seal the interior of the bag.
Next, the entire assembly of the mold, sheets, resin, and sealed bag is cured to form a hardened carbon fiber component. The curing can be performed using heat and/or high pressure. In particular, the assembly may be placed into an oven and/or into an autoclave, such as a hyperbaric chamber, where it is subjected to heat (in the oven) or to increased pressure (produced within the hyperbaric chamber of the autoclave). In either case, the assembly is heated and/or pressurized to cure the resin around the carbon fiber sheets to thereby harden the resin into a solid component with the carbon fiber sheets disposed therein. Moreover, when an autoclave is used, the pressure within the hyperbaric chamber forces the resin to come out of the carbon fiber sheets and to flow down towards the surface of the mold. The heat and/or pressure simultaneously bakes the resin which eventually hardens into a stiff or solid material with the carbon fiber sheets therein providing strength to the final component. Once baked or cured, the component has an exterior layer of (typically clear) resin formed over or on top of the carbon fiber sheets which are still disposed within the hardened resin at the back side of the component. When the resin cures as a clear substance, the carbon fiber weave of the topmost carbon fiber sheet is typically visible through the hardened resin, providing a distinctive look to the component, while the carbon fiber sheets give superior strength characteristics to the final component.
While vehicle components customization has been generally an individual pursuit, OEMs are increasingly offering vehicle customizations to differentiate one make of a vehicle from a competitor. For example, another manner of customizing a vehicle without changing an overall shape or method of manufacturing the vehicle is by changing the design of the headlights and other exterior and interior lighting features of the car. For example, a vehicle customization technique offered by some OEMs is to change interior lighting features and visual effects of brake lights, headlights, dashboard lights, and internal car lights. In some cases, additional lights or lighting features are added to the vehicle, such as beneath the frame, around the license plates, etc. However, such customizations are largely limited to altering previously-installed lighting components or mounting additional light fixtures on or to the exterior of the vehicle.